This invention relates generally optical fibers and more particularly to devices and methods of use for splicing then ends of a pair of optical fibers together.
Optical fibers are widely employed and are optical waveguides with an inner glass core having a refractive index which exceeds that of a surrounding cladding layer and are capable of conducting an optical ray by means of total internal reflection or guiding.
Optical fibers have been widely employed in the communications field and are employed in various other systems as well. It is apparent that an optical fiber is a glass light conducting guide of a given length and of extremely small diameter frequently must be connected (spliced) to the end of a similar fiber to enable it to serve as a system component. In this manner various optical fibers or optical links can be connected to other optical fibers or optical links for the efficient transmission of light.
Due to the extremely small dimensions regarding the cross sectional areas of any optical fiber the splicing of such fibers to one another so that the fibers are precisely aligned axially to minimize losses is of considerable importance. Various devices or assemblies have been proposed and used to achieve such splices. In this connection the patent literature discloses various devices/components for effecting the splicing of optical fibers, such as, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,077,702 (Neuried et al), 4,179,186 (Tynes), 4,325,607 (Carlsen), 4,647,150 (DeSanti et al), 4,763,970 (Berkey), 4,784,456 (Smith), 4,810,277 (Waitl et al), 4,818,059 (Kakii et al), and 4,850,670 (Mathis et al). In addition various splices are commercially available. For example, AT&T markets "Enhanced Rotary Mechanical Splices", "Silicon Chip Array Splices", and "Rapid Ribbon Splices". GTE markets "Elastomeric Mechanical Fiber Optic Splices". 3M markets "Fiberlok Optical Fiber Splices", and Norland Products, Inc. markets "UVC Optic Splices".
While the prior art splicing devices/components are generally suitable for their intended purposes, they nevertheless suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages, e.g., difficulty to use, complexity of construction, large size, expensive, effectiveness, etc.